Weekly ForceCast: October 21, 2011
This week, we go in the Cantina with the Sorcerers of Star Wars Sound: Matthew Wood, David Acord and the Godfather of all audio from the galaxy far far away Ben Burtt. Plus, panel highlights from Star Wars Fan Days, Episode I 3-D news, Darth Maul's return confirmed, and much, much more! Guests *Matthew Wood (recorded at Fan Days IV) *David Acord (recorded at Fan Days IV) *Ben Burtt (recorded at Fan Days IV) Topics *Jimmy Mac recaps his experience at Fan Days IV in Irving, TX from October 8-9, 2011. *Billy Dee Quote of the Week **Jimmy talks about the Billy Dee panel at Fan Days IV, where Billy Dee sang, the ForceCast was plugged, and Eric Geller followed up on an old hint about future Billy Dee Star Wars projects. *Star Wars in Pop Culture **Jason plays two Ewok clips from the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory. *Headline News **Jason and Jimmy discuss the recent passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and the Star Wars connection via George Lucas and Pixar. Jason plays a clip from a documentary that featured Steve Jobs discussing his collaboration with George Lucas on a film editing issue. **''Entertainment Weekly'' and USA Today have given us our first glimpse at the return of Darth Maul in The Clone Wars Season 4. Jason says that he was discussing this news with former ForceCast co-host Pete. Pete said he found the revival of the Zabrak Sith warrior to be unrealistic and cheap. Jimmy disagrees and says that he could believe that Maul survived his "death" on Naboo. He points to the Star Wars: Visionaries comic as an example of how Maul could return. ***Jason also mentions an "exclusive" scoop on Nuke the Fridge that Sam Witwer will be voicing Maul on TCW. Jimmy believes that Nuke the Fridge got their "exclusive" from TheForce.Net, which reported last week that Witwer would return to the show and that signs pointed to him voicing Maul. **The poster for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D has been revealed. It features, in Jason's words, "Darth Maul front and center." **''USA Today'' reports that the trailer for TPM 3D will debut in front of The Three Musketeers, which premieres on October 21. **Jason wonders aloud what could have influenced the strange design of the TPM 3D poster, noting that Anakin Skywalker and Qui-Gon Jinn are "conspicuous by their absence" and that the relatively minor character of Darth Maul dominates the poster art. Jimmy mentions that the website Topless Robot acquired a "transcript" of a secret Lucasfilm meeting where the poster design was decided. Not to be outdone, however, Jimmy reveals that The ForceCast's microphones were actually in the room when this conversation took place. Jason rolls the clip. **At The Clone Wars voice actors' panel at Fan Days IV, The 501st Legion inducted Catherine Taber as an honorary member in recognition of her charitable work with the "Games for Soldiers" project. Jason plays a clip of that moment from the panel. He then plays a clip, also from the panel, of Stephen Stanton discussing (and imitating) how Dave Filoni described a scene to the actors in the recording studio. *Fan Days IV Interview: "In The Cantina" with Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood, and David Acord **Jason asks Ben about the work he did on the Star Wars Blu-ray set. He, Ben, Matt, and David then discuss the dialog and sound changes in the new Blu-ray edits. **After Jimmy asks him about it, Ben Burtt talks about the secrecy surrounding the actual "big reveal" in The Empire Strikes Back. **Burtt explains how they mixed the audio for the podrace scene in Episode I. He describes how they "made each podracer distinctive." **The conversation then shifts to how Burtt created the various sound effects for the TIE Fighters. David Acord says that he still occasionally goes out to find natural sounds for use in The Clone Wars. **Burtt says that, as a kid, he would record audio from movies that aired on TV. "All the hours I spent doing that ... led to my sensitivity of the relationship of sound to picture." **Burtt adds that, two weeks ago, he recorded the audio of a supermarket freezer door opening because the hum of the door produced an interesting effect. The sound "probably will be a force field or something ... some kind of levitation beam field, or who knows." He catalogs all of the natural audio he records. "It will ultimately be of some use to me." **Burtt describes how he created the iconic lightsaber hum by employing a phenomenon called the Doppler effect. "I was a physics major," he explains. **Burtt talks about his interest in (and use of) "the Wilhelm scream." Significant quotes *"As sound people, we love the sequences like the podrace. They are an opportunity for the sound effects to play a starring role." – Ben Burtt